by ToesUp 72 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Inside the KH, your local experience is hardly a basis for proof of high JW conversions from preaching. In my current KH and everyone I have ever been in, sisters are popping out kids right and left and NOT pioneering or converting anyone.
Half of my last congregation was made up of children, most baptized before the age of 16.
YOU are extrapolating YOUR experiences and trying to paint a picture that may not be true. Why?
DD
@outlaw this discussion is about growth not about pinocchio.
and the growth continues as we speak,.. only 28 weeks to go to 8.4 million publishers......insidetheKH
..................You were "CAUGHT IN A LIE".....Your "NOT EMBARRASSED" about it..
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@DD if you read what i wrote you would have known that i did not tell that local experience as a basis for proof.
On the contrary i showed it only to make clear to @Village that local examples can't be extrapolated to the rest of the world.
if we talk about growth lets stick to the facts. The facts are clear... growth rates,,.. birth rates.. death rates etc etc
@ insidetheKH: "...only to make clear to @Village that local examples can't be extrapolated to the rest of the world."
Yes, it might be anecdotal information, but I've heard similar multiple reports from different sources. You might want to start a thread asking for information about congregation mergers. I'm sure you'll hear a few accounts from all over the US.
insidetheKH: @redvip that is simply not true. Average anual population growth is now about 1%,.. during the sixties and during the last century it never was higher than about 2%
However the annual growth of JW's was much higher than the average population growth almost every single year. Bisides that many JW couples decide(d) not to take children because they place kingdom interests first or think that this system of things is not the right environment to raise children in,
It seems that you're saying that JW growth rate (baptisms) is greater than JW birth rate, and that therefore, there must be JW recruits from outside JWdom. In other words, it seems that you're saying that if, for example, JW growth (baptisms) is 1.5%, and birth rate among JWs is only 1%, that some of those baptized must be coming from the outside due to the preaching work. If that's what you're saying, then your argument is flawed for several reasons.
Here's one reason the argument is flawed. The internal growth of JWs doesn't come exclusively from children born to JWs as if the tree branches only in one direction; it doesn't. It branches in other directions, also. In my own congregation, there have been four baptisms in the last ten or so years. Not one of the four was the child of a JW, but all four were family members of JWs. Here is a description of them:
1) Teen-aged girl whose mother has JW first cousins
2) Mother of #1. Baptized after #1. As indicated above, she has first cousins who are JWs.
3) Teen-aged girl who has JW relatives, but whose parents are not JWs
4) Elderly man (uneducated and totally clueless) whose daughter is a JW
So these are people who were baptized as JWs, but not because of the preaching work; they became JWs because of connections to JWdom through family members, but they are not the offspring of JWs. So the JW birth rate is not really as relevant as you seem to indicate - as if all JW internal growth is from the direct offspring of JWs. JWs have all kinds of family (& acquaintance) connections that they can look to for growth; they don't have to just to look to the children of JWs. And with most of the newly baptized ones come more connections that can be exploited.
@Outlaw it is not a lie. it is what JW's are supposed to believe. Look it up in the study watchtower of this coming weekend......insidetheKH............................Spare us the "ENDLESS WBT$ LIES".
...............................We Know What JW`s Believe..
......................It Was Beaten Into Us At a Very Early Age.. .........................
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@village this thread is about growth and the question if the new ones are born ins or came through the witnessing work.
Anyone who can do math can figure out that the majority of growth comes from the witnessing work, It's very simple. Local or regional situations do not matter.
let me give you an example.
lets assume that in the last 10 years JW's got 800,000 babies and that they all became publishers (the real nr of babies is far less cause this number is based on 8 million publishers).
and lets assume that during the same decade 500,000 JW's died and that 400,000 were df'd or da'd
compare that with the actual growth over 10 years. around 2004 there were about 6 million average publishers. in 2014 there were about 7.9 million average publishers.
so that is +1.9 million.
Its obvious this cant come from births. They are (assuming that 100% of those kids become publishers) barely enough to keep up with death rate and nr of df'd/da'd ones.
conclusion the majority of new members comes from outside of the organisation
